How about that... Ross Brawn now is a stakeholder of the old Honda F1 team and now has a F1 team named after him. In all honesty, I didn't see that one actually panning out. I figured for sure a large company of some sort or a Richard Branson would end up buying the team. Good for Brawn and company. Now they just have to make it work!
Another thing that I didn't expect was to see the mighty Rubens Barrichello back in a F1 car either. How fun. While I think Rubens might as well throw in the towel, it is nice to see him back for another season in some way. Not that I'm against Bruno Senna being in F1, but it does make sense for Rubens and Button to team together since they are the most experienced couple on the grid (according to grandprix.com)
I find it funny that when the USF1 team was announced a few weeks back it was mentioned Bernie Ecclestone was all about the idea, yet he then made them change the name to USGPE standing for US GP Engineering. That just irks me since FOM doesn't even own the F1 name. Way to help out the little guy Bernie. The team had to tack on "engineering" to the name since Tony George is thought to own the rights to USGP, even though he doesn't currently have a USGP to run.
Gah!
Friday, March 6, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Hey Niki,
Now that Honda's out I strongly suspect Toyota will fold their factory team and concentrate on supplying Williams with engines.
I don't claim to have some kind of special insight into Japanese culture or Japanese corporate culture, but I suspect Honda's presence in F1, along with Toyota having pulled out of Indycar, put some kind of pressure on them to "not retreat" from F1 as well-- and now that Honda's out, they can bow out as well.
Maybe I shouldn't have said "bow out." Ouch, the cliches are piling up.
But what do you think?
All the points you make are good. Put it this way, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Toyota did in fact pull out of F1, but I also won't be surprised if they stay in the game.
Even though times are tough, and I read that Toyota is in the process of asking the Japanese government for some financial assistance... Toyota is the largest manufacturer of cars in the world currently and hopefully they want to look strong, and will stick around in F1.
Lastly, Toyota hasn't won a thing in F1 yet. Honda at least won 1 race and had a rich heritage as an engine builder before that. For all the money Toyota has wasted, they might as well stick around till they have at least scored one race win :)
Post a Comment